Thread: Scholar 5.0 Discussion

I just read that Embrace is nerfed from 250 potency to 150 potency wat. Edit, guess it makes sense since Seraph gives you 50 gauge and 200 potency embrace with 200 potency shields for 20 sec (probably less if animation is a thing

After looking at these changes I have come to the realization that Scholar is going from being my favorite job to basically making me considering leaving the game. I have been a raid scholar since Final Coil and been highly praised by raiders and casual players alike for how I well I know my job, and manage my pets. I have put a great pride in that and I can honestly say that playing scholar is for me as natural as breathing and I have loved it so much.

I'm trying to not sound like a ranty little kid and keep this criticism to the point, so I made a list of the changes I want to adress and how this will ruin the job I love for me.

On the plus side, Recitation is something I have begged for since Cascades in A3s, however, If the use for it has been removed with no longer spreading of crit Adlos this new additional skill basically feels very lacklustered for me, it feels a underwhelming. A little like getting that game you always wanted and realizing it doesn't work on your console.

So without any further ado, here is my list:

1) The Removal of Selene
The removal of Selene and her skills seem rather illogical with the philosophy that SE seem to be heading with healers and making them more "simple/straightforward".

The use of Fey caress as an aoe esuna in dungeons was a really handy toolkit to have. And outside of dungeons in some situations, such as Place of the Dead, Heaven on High + Baldesion Arsenal it was extremely irreplaceable. It was to that extent that I, even tho it would heal intensive, pick Selene over Eos just for her instant dot removal. In especially the deep dungeon this could mean the difference between a wipe and a clear because of server ticks sometimes being an issue.

They redid the interrupt system in this expansion to make it more clear to people when things could be interrupted then they went and ripped silent dusk away from scholars, I don't understand the logic here.

Finally Fey wind was a small but nice to have raid buff, its a small 3% that's been removed for no reason. I always used Selene in the beginning of a fight just because there was no healing required there, I would put a shield and Excog on the tank before the fight and then focus on my dps rotation and swap out Selene for Eos when the fight started to get into the intensive parts.

2) The Removal of Energy Drain
Energy Drain is big part of my rotation, its a way to dump my Aetherflow stacks when healing hasn't been necessary and Aetherflow has been coming off cool down. It was also a way to regain MP in situations were I for example have died and being raised again, so it have made it possible for me to recover faster and move on in the fight. The removal of Energy Drain also doesn't make any sense with the fact that the fairy gauge will become more useful with the addition of a new Fairy Gauge action. If the point is to build gauge, which it has been in Stormblood, that haven't made it easier. Scholar has gone from being a very effective and flexible job to overly simplified and straight forward with just a lot ogcd healing. If I could change anything, it would be this, give us back Energy Drain, you can dump the Mp regain down to 5% if needed, but just give it back because as it stands with this current information, playing scholar will basically mean that I will have the highest over healing known to man, I might even ripe hate because of the pure aggro generation the healing does.
To give an example of how important Energy Drain is to the Fairy Gauge as well I'll talk about O11S:
For the first minute of O11S there is basically no damage going out if I put up an Adlo spread at the beginning, the Aoe isn't strong enough to break the shield and the tank will get a Regen from the Whm/Astro + A shield from me + Embrace from Fairy.
During this minute I can use 6 Energy Drains without sacrificing any healing, because there is nothing to heal. With these 6 energy drains I can build up a 60 stack Fairy Gauge, which I'll use on healing the main tank during the first encounter of the fists which requires a lot of orientating and moving for healers while heavy auto attacks is going out on the tank, so using Fey Union on the tank here is both efficient and useful since the Energy Drains I have used up until this point has been converted to heals from the fairy. At the same time, I have not wasted any stacks on missing cool downs or holding aetherflow. I know this requires planning, but that is what made Scholar fun.

3) Fairy Embrace
From what I have seen/heard, we no longer can control our Fairys basic heal ability. Why is that? The heal has even been reduced, which is fine, but why can't we control it? Since Embrace is on auto for party members below 80%, its still random which player she will heal first, or at all. I know that micro managing your fairy is something not all Scholars do, and that's fine, I won't say a word about it, however I know how I play and I enjoy being able to use Embrace on people in situations where they would have for example 85% health and NEEDED to be topped of to not turn to stone. It would make more sense then using a Physic or Adlo on them because of the pure Mp cost and an Embrace would more then enough which would save a GCD which could be used on for example moving into position for an upcoming mechanic.

4) Removing Miasma
When Stormblood came out I was really sad, but I accepted that I had halved my dots from 4 to 2, now they are halved again, into 1... The thing with scholar has been our dots, dots has been our damage, which has made it possible for us to focus on getting stronger shields and protecting our parties. Removing Miasma has basically turned Scholar into a Noct astro without the Cards, which makes no sense, especially not when it comes to down to the whole balancing of the three healers.

Scholar has ONLY 1 dot and 1 GCD for dps (Ruin 2 doesnt count, it a weave skill for moving)
WHM has assize and Afflatus Misery which yes they are oGCD but that's additional potencies that they will have over sch.
Meanwhile AST is throwing out all these raid buffs and still has earthly star on a min cd for an extra 150 potency every minutes.
With these it just feels like sch is going to be sitting around waiting to heal/dump their aetherflow and also be doing less damage/compared to the other healers.
So basically, Scholar is the only of the healers that won't have an ogcd dps skill, meaning we are going to be the healer who, which SE has said they actively wanted to avoid, will be stuck in acting as the main healer.

5) Deployment Crit-lo
So I don't know if this is correct yet, but I hope it ain't. From what I have understood spreading a Crit Adlo will no longer spread the additional effect of the adlo, which was that your shield became 200% of your heal, meaning a 10k Adlo became a 20k shield. If this is the case I honestly just feel drained. Basically every single fight I do depends on a crit adlo at some point or an other, if it's in the beginning or to avoid the hell that is Hello World in o12s. For parts of these fights I would just do everything I could to get the biggest crit I could possible get. This means sacrificing my own personal DPS, which I was fine with because of the benefits it would mean for the party. With this argument I hope that you can see that I'm not just a summoner disgusted as a healer, I don't care much about Dps, however I care about being efficient and honestly, there was no better feeling then seeing a massive raid Aoe a'la Aion Efflex do zero damage to the whole party.

There, I have tried to keep my comments to the point and give example on how this effects us Scholars actually doing the content created for us.

Have a good one.

Game over man, game over!


But fr I can't believe how badly they massacred our role. To think I was so excited to get to level it again for Shadowbringers. Good bye to that fantasy lol, I'm not even looking at it again until they restore it back to a proper state. These changes are unnecessary and unacceptable and I wish everyone who decides to stick with SCH(and healing in general) good luck because Hydaelyn knows y'all will need it.